A
fascinating
and exciting theatrical experiment brings two of our finest actresses
together in rich and juicy roles – and the only frustration is that
you will probably only experience half of the adventure.

Juliet
Stevenson and Lia Williams are sharing the central roles of Elizabeth
I and Mary Queen of Scots in Robert Icke's modern dress adaptation of
Schiller's drama. But who plays which is decided by the spin of a
coin at the start of each performance.

So
even if you wanted to, you
couldn't come back another night with the assurance of seeing them
switch roles.

And
that is almost the only complaint I can make about
this brilliant and emotionally resonant production directed by
adapter Icke.

The
rival queens have fascinated historians and
creative artists for centuries, since their story embodies politics,
religion, personal animosities, treachery, theories of kingship,
sexual jealousy, a competition in which nobody could be considered
the winner, and two larger-than-life personalities.

The
facts are
fairly simple. Catholic Mary had almost as strong a claim to the
English throne as Protestant Elizabeth – her son would in fact be
the next English king – and if she did not actually instigate a
number of Catholic plots to assassinate Elizabeth, she was certainly
their inspiration.

So
when events brought Mary into England,
Elizabeth had her imprisoned for years and eventually
executed.

Schiller's
drama focuses on that imprisonment period, as various
members of Elizabeth's court urge her to kill or spare Mary, in
almost every case having personally ambitious agendas behind their
positions, while others (and sometimes the same people) attempt to
rescue Mary, again for reasons of their own.

Meanwhile
Elizabeth
herself wavers, knowing that her own motives are tainted by sexual
jealousy and by the fear of setting a precedent for the killing of
queens, while Mary vacillates between imperious conviction that she
is in the right and simple fear of dying.

Schiller's
dramatic
accomplishment is to bring both women alive as individuals and not
just figureheads, and Robert Icke's contribution is to clarify the
complex and ever-shifting political manoeuvring going on around the
two.

Even
without the rich portrayals by the two actresses at its
centre, this Mary Stuart would be a fascinating
who's-doing-what-to-whom political thriller, with Rudi
Dharmalingham's Mortimer and John Light's Leicester keeping us
guessing from minute to minute whose side they're on (and 'their own'
is not always the right alternative answer), while even such
respected and confidence-inspiring elder statesmen as Vincent
Franklin's Burleigh and Alan Williams's Talbot expose hidden agendas
that shake their moral high ground.

And
now to the two stars. The
spin of the coin meant that I saw Lia Williams as Mary and Juliet
Stevenson as Elizabeth, which in some ways was the easier and more
natural casting, since Williams, for all her ability to project
strength, brings a womanly fragility to Mary while Stevenson, for all
her femininity, carries a natural authority and strength with
her.

That
is not to say that either is limited or one-dimensional. One of
Stevenson's most powerful moments comes when Elizabeth's reserve and
self-control breaks down and she gives way to open jealousy of the
more sexual and just more attractive Mary.

And
Williams turns Mary's
final scene, in which she prepares herself and her followers for a
dignified and royal death, into a foretaste of the superb performance
she will someday give as Shakespeare's Cleopatra.

Along
the way both
actresses bring fascinating and unexpected colours to their
characterisations, enriching our sense of the women and of the
multi-layered complexity of their shared story.

But
inevitably you
will find yourself imagining, in scene after scene, how the other
would have played that moment, and it would be nice if the Almeida
(as other theatres have done in roughly parallel situations) had just
a few casting-announced-in-advance performances for those who want to
come back.

My
only other complaint is that at over three hours the
evening is long, and that just at the point where the end is clearly
inevitable and things should seem to speed toward it, the pace
becomes leisurely and the energy level drops.

Every
cast member I've
named is excellent (as are the rest), and the two stars beyond
praise. Coming at the end of the year, this Mary Stuart is one of the
theatrical triumphs of 2016.